Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to polymeric compositions and, more particularly, to blends of acrylonitrile butadiene copolymers and polychloroprene copolymer polymeric compositions that are capable of being disposed as coatings on fabric liners creating supported gloves or as unsupported or unlined gloves.
Description of the Related Art
Gloves are utilized in many fields of service for protecting workers, such as for medical, industrial, household, and other applications. In service, gloves are subjected to extensive wear from cuts, punctures, and abrasions, creating a need for durability. Furthermore, other in-service requirements include enhanced grip-ability, stretch-ability, and flexibility. Some gloves include a fabric liner that is dipped into a polymeric composition to form a coating that covers at least a portion of the liner, i.e., a supported glove. The liners comprise yarns for various applications and polymeric coatings generally provide chemical-resistance, abrasion resistance, and the like.
Polymeric compositions generally include various materials such as polyvinyl chloride, natural rubber latex, nitrile rubber, styrene-butadiene, polyurethane, polychloroprene, and the like. Also, polymeric compositions optionally contain additives, such as pH balancers, vulcanizing agents, and other additives, and the like to stabilize the polymeric compositions, or impart desired properties. However, typical blends of polymeric compositions utilize many fillers and processing aids in to balance physical and chemical properties, which is not an optimal solution. For example, polychloroprene materials are typically used in gloves for good chemical resistance and flexibility but do not perform particularly well physically. Nitrile rubber materials tend to have good abrasion resistance, though it has some undesired properties for a glove coating, such as inflexibility, and a “plastic” feel.
Therefore, polymeric or elastomeric compositions for coatings exhibiting enhanced flexibility and abrasion resistance and methods for manufacturing gloves incorporating the coatings would represent an advance in the art.